Steve, I am not sure that you picked up on Al's sarcasm about the
seller's reply.
Jim Nichol
On Jan 1, 2010, at 3:22 PM, Steven Medved wrote:
Dear Al,
The triumph cost $50 when $5 a day for wages was a good salary. Who
would pay for and why would Edison sell in 1904 a machine with an
outdated, poorly sounding reproducer. Also why would he have an
automatic from 1898 and a carriage from early 1902 (or earlier) on a
machine from after 1904?
Equally curious is why more of these are not existing.
Edison obviously was not organized and you see many examples of
later machines and reproducers with earlier parts, but Edison's goal
was to sell records and the early thin weight automatic sounds so
bad on the molded records that no one would enjoy gold molded
records with it. Edison was so interested in selling records that
in 1919 he offered kits to upgrade the Standard, Home, and Triump to
the diamond B reproducer. I have seen a home that was modified with
one of the kits, the 2/4 decal was removed.
Around 1900 Edison almost doubled the weight of the automatic. It
is true that Edison never wasted and used up all the obsolete parts,
but he did this in an efficient manner. For example in 1901 he
introduced the early B reproducer and in 1902 he introduced the
Model C reproducer. As you suggested rather than waste he continued
to offer the Model B on the Gem sans arm and the later (serial
number 50,000 to 90,000) Model B reproducer is found without the
word reproducer as he used the early B tops made for the arm.
I also found it extremely interesting that Mr. Triumph, Terry Baer
essentially said the same thing as you did.
I purchased a suitcase home that had the early two clip carriage.
This carriage had the adjuster for the arm machined off and it had
the centering pin and the "Speaker Clamp Screw" part #2531
installed. It was done so well if I had not noted the four screw
holes for the clips I would not have noticed a modification was done.
So if Edison found the 1902 (or earlier) carriage after June 1904 he
could have updated the carriage and installed a model C so he could
sell records to the owner.
I believe had the seller had known there were three types of
automatic made, the length of production of the A, and that you can
approximate the date of phonographs and reproducers by the serial
number he could have produced a more convincing machine.
Best regards,
Steve
I stand corrected, the seller sent me an email telling me that at
the end
of the Model As Edison just threw any and all parts together to
clear the
stocks! I guess he did not know that the Model As went for some
time after the
machine he has. The Model A ended around 51000.
Of special interest is that the machine in question appeared
sometime back
on eBay in the raised panel cabinet with a normal arm carrying a
Model C
Reproducer and no adjustment arm. So, this seller put an 'New
Style' cabinet
on the works and attached an earlier arm with clips. The machine
then became
"rare."
Or, maybe I just don't know anything... ;-)
Al
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
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